Tasering officer admits he was wrong, but denies lying

Const. Kwesi Millington's evidence is under scrutiny.Photo by
Jon Murray, The Province

RCMP Const. Kwesi Millington admitted at the Braidwood inquiry he was “incorrect” and “wrong” about key points of his evidence, but denied a Polish government lawyer’s accusation that he “continued to lie under oath.”

Millington, 32, is the officer who fired a Taser five times in rapid succession at Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, with his first shot hitting the man less than a minute after four RCMP officers arrived at the airport Oct. 14, 2007.

Dziekanski, who spent 30 hours travelling from Poland and lost at the airport, became frustrated and threw a table, but called, “Polizia, polizia” in an apparent desparate bid to get help when the four RCMP officers arrived.

Police Tasered and restrained Dziekanski when they arrived about 1:30 a.m. Within 12 minutes, Dziekanski lay lifeless on the ground, handcuffed facedown, and couldn’t be revived by Richmond first responders or paramedics.

Don Rosenbloom, the lawyer for Poland, challenged Millington: “You and your fellow officers collaborated to fabricate your story with an explanation that would justify your conduct to your superiors. Do you deny that?”

Millington replied, without losing the composure he has maintained during gruelling questioning: “We acted according to our training and we did act in a prudent fashion, and I never intended the result [Dziekanski’s death].”

Rosenbloom charged that the officers’ statements are so similar, yet contradicted by the evidence of bystander Paul Pritchard's video, that it appears “you were fast at work at the scene cooking up your story and it continued back at the detachment . . . You continued to lie under oath at this inquiry.”

Insisted Millington, “That never happened.”

Rosenbloom prepared a “chart” citing the multiple discrepancies between the Pritchard video and the testimony given at the inquiry so far by Millington and his fellow officers Const. Gerry Rundel and Const. Bill Bentley.

“You and your officers made some terrible and critical mistakes,” charged Rosenbloom.

Millington denied that, saying, “We acted in accordance to our training and we did act in a prudent fashion.”

Still slated to give evidence is Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson, who will appear on March 23 at the inquiry, after a previously scheduled two-week break. Braidwood did not want a break in Robinson’s evidence.

Dziekanski’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, said Wednesday, “They are liars . . . they are not telling the truth, I am so angry.”

But Ravi Hira, Millington’s lawyer, said outside the court, “He was not lying. My client stepped forward on the witness stand . . . where he made mistakes [and] he admitted them readily.

“He is entitled to Taser a person more than once if siutational factors dictate, and that’s what he testified.”

Cisowski’s lawyer Walter Kosteckyj cited a “big gap” in the officers’ evidence and “what the video shows,” saying Dziekanski never raised or swung a stapler “wildly” as a weapon, was not combative and “never advanced a step and was never aggressive toward the officers.”

The stapler that the RCMP claimed Dziekanski brandished as a weapon was shown to reporters yesterday in an evidence bag, as a relatively small black “Apsco 17” stapler, made in Sweden, about 13 inches long when open.

Kosteckyj, a former RCMP officer, said the RCMP should “step forward and admit this was not their finest hour” and should also reopen the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team file based on new evidence at the inquiry.

Neil MacKenzie, Crown counsel spokesman, said the decision last Dec. 12 not to charge the four officers criminally “was based on the evidence available and provided by police at the time to the Criminal Justice Branch.”

“If additional evidence becomes available it’s always open to us to have the matter reviewed and resubmitted to Crown,” said MacKenzie. “It’s not uncommon for us to return a file to police.”

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